Busy, busy, busy!!!

The Birthday Boy!

A glimpse of the party!


Let's play!



Ok, so we've been pretty busy all of September and all of it's events made the month seem like a whirlwind!! So, to catch everyone up to where we have been and why we have been gone from the blogging world for so long, here we go!


We started last month off with a surprise b'day party for Jess' 30th!!!! We had our family and our closest and dearest friends (well all those who could easily make it!) over to Jess' parents house for a great surprise!

Then it was back to preschool for Jonah at Kalamazoo Christian West Elementary. He is in the

4 year old class and goes every MWF morning. He loves it and his friend Drew was recently added to the class this week, so now he is really excited!

The following weekend we flew down to Disney World with Jess' family for 4 days. We stayed at his parents time share there and it was a really nice place. The kids did GREAT and were the best kids. We were so proud of them! This is where our little princess emerged! Lauren has heard the name Cinderella maybe a few times, but decided, with no prodding from us, that she loves Rella (aka, Cinderella)! She has not stopped talking about Rella since we have returned home and every picture or princess she see's is Cinderella...although, this week I gave her a bowl of cheeries with Ariel, and she looked at me and said, "No, Rella." Unbelieveable!!!! Jonah had a great time and had a dream come true while we were there! Well, any 4 year old boy's dream come true! We were going to stand in line for Dumbo, a ride he had been waiting so patiently to ride all day, and as we entered a guy from Disney stopped Jonah and asked him if he wanted to become a pilot for Dumbo. Jonah's eyes lit up and of course he said, "yes!" And the whole time this guy is doing his speal, I'm thinking, this is cute, all the little kids must be getting special cards that say they are all official Dumbo pilots. And then he starts leading Jonah and I away through the crowded line and right to the front of the line where he makes this loud proclamation about Jonah and how he has been chosen to be Dumbo's pilot and then Jonah gets to be the first person to get on the ride and pick what color Dumbo he wants (this was a big deal to Jonah, he loves green)!!! It was really cool and he smiled so big the entire ride and after. It was pretty special!

After we returned home from Florida, my mom, sister and I drove to St. Louis for a girls weekend and to go to the Joyce Meyer Women's Conference. We had a really great time and if you haven't checked out my mom's blog lately, please do, it tells a great story about our trip! You can go to their blog from our blog.

When I returned home to my wonderful husband, who stayed home with 2 sick kids and one of them sicker than the other, we were handed another battle with croup and asthma. Jonah has now had croup 4 times in 6 months and this time was really bad. He was having a real hard time breathing and could not get control of the cough. We tried everything and in the end had to head to Bronson ER, again. They kept us there for the night and around 5AM his breathing still had not improved, so they decided to keep him. Thankfully, he started to respond to the meds around 8AM and this is just when Jess had dozed off. They slept about an hour and the dr. came and told him we could go home. I had left the hospital around 5, after they decided to keep him, to go home, get some sleep and relieve my mom from watching Lauren, who also decided to pull an all nighter! She knew something was going on! So please pray for Jonah and us as we are really praying for him to not get croup again and for us to keep his asthma under control...which lately seems difficult. At this point the dr.s are all confused and are playing with his asthma medications to see if changing the frequency he has them will help. We will see.

Ok, so still more!

Jonah also started soccer this fall, which has been fun. He seems to really enjoy playing and scores goal at every game! He is a pretty aggressive player, but is not mean and keeps his elbows and arms down, so he only pushes sometimes. Which is an improvement from soccer camp this summer where he would literally chase after the ball and push everyone down who was in his way! And sometimes, when he is tired and doesn't feel like running around any more, he just falls to the ground and lays there....which Jess finds beyond frustrating! Because he won't get back up until he is ready, unless his coach goes over and encourages him to stand up and keep going. This, I am pretty sure, is age related!! It is fun to watch little ones play soccer though...they are all in their own little worlds!!

And to end this really long blog, we just returned today from a retreat to the Eustice Lodge with our small group. We had a really fun time, despite our interesting and unique surroundings. It was quite rustic and smelly (moldy, damp, old smelly). But we had fun talking and playing games and just hanging out together. We have really been blessed with this small group. They are more than our small group, they have become our really good friends and we thank God for each one of them!



Two last notes of excitement!! My parents have sold their house!!! And have to be out in a few weeks! So praise God! AND, even more exciting, my sister and Ryan are ENGAGED!!!! We are so happy and excited for them and for my sister. Congratulations, again, and we are so happy for you.